Modi govt saved its own skin, ditched policemen: Vanzara

DG Vanzara, jailed IPS officer in Sohrabuddin fake encounter case, who passed Post Graduate Diploma in Value Education and Spirituality conducted by Annamalai Open Universty, speaking at a special convocation in Sabarmati Central Jail in Ahmedabad.

Jailed IPS officer DG Vanzara, accused in four fake encounter cases in Gujarat, resigned from service through an explosive letter in which he said his “god”, chief minister Narendra Modi, had failed him due to the “evil influence” of his chief aide Amit Shah.

In a 10-page letter dated September 1 — which surfaced on Tuesday — Vanzara accused the state government of reaping the political benefits of fake encounter cases, while abandoning police officials in jails.

“This government was not only not interested in protecting us, but has been clandestinely making all efforts to keep me and my officers in the jail to save its own skin from the CBI and gain political benefits,” Vanzara, who has been in jail for the last six years, said.

The letter could not have come at worse time for Modi, who is widely tipped to be named as the Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial face for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

The letter is set to compound Shah’s problems as well. Shah, an accused in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case, is at present out on bail.

Accusing the state government of exploiting police officers and then sacrificing them to save their political fortunes, Vanzara said he “used to adore Modi like God”, but the CM failed to rise to the occasion “under the evil influence of Amit Shah”.

Vanzara said he and other police officers "simply implemented the conscious policy" of the Gujarat government on encounters. "Gujarat CID/Union CBI had arrested me and my officers in different encounter cases holding us to be responsible for carrying out alleged fake encounters, if that is true, then the CBI investigating officers of all the four encounter cases of Shoharabuddin, Tulasiram, Sadique Jamal and Ishrat Jahan have to arrest the policy formulators," he said in the letter

"We, being field officers, have simply implemented the conscious policy of this government which was inspiring, guiding and monitoring our actions from the very close quarters. By this reasoning, I am of the firm opinion that the place of this government should be either be in Taloja Central Prison at Navi Mumbai or in Sabarmati Central Prison at Ahmedabad."

Vanzara has been in jail since 2007, when he was arrested in connection with the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case. Subsequently, he was named in the Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounter case, Sadiq Jamal staged killing case and the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case.

Vanzara also said in his letter that with the passage of time he realized that the government was not only not interested in protecting the police but it also had been clandestinely making all efforts to keep him and his officers in the jail so as to save its own skin from the CBI on one hand and gain political benifits on the other.

According to Vanzara, the state government has “forfeited its right to have a place in Gandhinagar”. He added, “I am of the firm opinion that the place of this government… is in Taloja Central Prison or in Sabarmati Central Prison.”